Dreyd

The Way of Thorn and Thunder #3

by Daniel Heath Justice

The Eternity Tree has fallen, and with it falls Sheynadwiin. The forces of Eromar ravage the Everland, and the skies are filled with the smoke and ashes of the burning forests. Those Folk who do not escape into the far mountains and hidden valleys are driven into the broken westlands of Humanity, where Dreydmaster Vald reveals the full vision of his grand ambition, one that will annihilate even the memory of the Kyn and their kind. Yet not all the Folk walk down the Darkening Road. As the Redthorn Wielder, Tarsadeshae, and her group of freedom fighters travel west to free their people, a young Tetawa Dolltender and her Strangeling compatriot head to the East, to plead their case to the Reachwarden in great Chalimor, the shining capital of the Reach of Men. Unexpected allies stand at their side, even as deadly enemies rise up to surround them. Yet surrender is not an option, for the Folk stand at the edge of oblivion. Never since the Melding have they faced such danger. Will their roots hold fast, or will they be lost upon the storm?

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Indigenous, Fiction

Paperback

First published September 15, 2007

About the author

Daniel Heath Justice, O.C., Ph.D., FRSC, is a Colorado-born citizen of the Cherokee Nation/ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, a Spears, Foreman, and Riley citizen descendant on his father's side, raised the third generation of his mother's non-Native family in the Rocky Mountain mining town of Victor, Colorado; he also holds Canadian citizenship. He now lives with his husband in shíshálh swiya on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, where they serve as the human attendants to a frenzy of three adorable but feral forest Frenchies.

Daniel currently works on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam people, where he is Professor of Critical Indigenous Studies and English and
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Textual Sovereignties at the University of British Columbia. His research and teaching focus on Indigenous literary expression and cultural history, with particular emphasis on issues of Indigenous literary nationalism, kinship, sexuality, and intellectual production. His scholarship and creative work also extend into animal studies (including book-length studies of badgers and raccoons for the Reaction Books *Animal* series) and speculative fiction. His most recent book is the twentieth-anniversary "citizenship and sovereignty" edition of *Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History* (University of Minnesota Press, 2026), which is entirely focused on citizen Cherokee writers. He is also a lifelong tabletop D&D player and fantasy/wonderworks writer who explores the imaginative possibilities of Indigiqueer resurgence and decolonization, especially in his epic fantasy series, *The Way of Thorn and Thunder* (omnibus edition, 2011).

A few more facts about Daniel:
-he's an amateur ventriloquist with a halfling puppet named Woodley Twigg;
-he's a lifelong tabletop RPG player whose favoured alignment is Neutral Good and favoured classes are Druid and Ranger;
-he is currently co-writing (with Cherokee Nation scholar Jacquelyn Sparks) a literary biography of early twentieth-century Cherokee Nation historian and genealogist Emmet Starr;
-the speculative fiction writers who had the greatest influence on his imagination growing up include Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and his early pop-culture loves include Masters of the Universe, Ewoks, and Thundercats;
-he's a fierce mustelid partisan with a particular love of badgers--in fact, his favourite tattoo is of the badger symbol used by his character Tobhi from *The Way of Thorn and Thunder*; and
-he's a devoted Dolly Parton fan and has seen her in concert three times (but has not, alas, yet been to Dollywood).

In summary, he's a queer Cherokee hobbit who lives and writes in the West Coast temperate rainforest and occasionally emerges to teach and do readings. And he's good with that.

Go to his website, www.danielheathjustice.com, for more information about his published and forthcoming work as well as his irregularly-updated blog.

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t imagine a better, more satisfying finish to Daniel Heath Justice’s fantasy trilogy than Dreyd, the final, exhilarating book. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should have a look at my review of the first and the second book in this fantastic series.

Like all good speculative fiction series installments, Dreyd picks up just about where Wyrwood left off, but with a slight detour into the past. By book two, we already knew Vergis Thane—a man who hunts Kyn folk for their magic—and Denarra Syrene—a she-Strangeling, a travelling musician and actress, as well as a Wielder—had some kind of past. The very beginning of Dreyd takes us back to see how Thane has got as awful as he is, and why Denarra has a connection to this horrible guy. The plot thickens! I think Denarra’s is my favourite storyline, and we get to see lots of her in this third book, including what her life in Chalimor, the capital in a far land of humans....

See my entire review here:
https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wo...

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want Daniel Justice to write MORE FICTION, like, now. This was a fabulous ending to a very important and well-written trilogy. Hopefully the obscure fate of Denarra Syrene, whom I adore, is foreshadowing for more work featuring her. Read these books, people.

[Qwo-Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

AHHH! I love this book. Love! It was such a great ending to the trilogy. AAAaaaAHHHHH! I want more fiction from Daniel. Now.

[Saige · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a solid and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, but the pacing felt really off to me. Tarsa acquires, sorta uses, loses, and acquires again the Heartwood power. That's way too quick of movement for something that supposed to be momentous. Also, if all the People become the Tree, then why is Tarsa the only one who gets to use the magic?

I'm really pleased that this ends with a queer polycule, and with a zhe-Kyn in power. No need for silly love triangles based on heterosexist norms - there's enough love and kindness for all to share. I'd love to see more stuff like this in other fantasy texts.

The final confrontation between Denarra and Thane was a bit of a letdown, but the reappearance of Denarra's spirit with Quill at the end gave me legit goosebumps. The version I'm reading has some gorgeous art of them standing together at the back of the book. I adore texts where strong friendship ties are as important as romantic ones, and this book embodies that.

All that said, Vald was sorta a nothing villain. I know he's supposed to be deplorable and evil straight to the bone, but I think giving him more dimension would have made the series' message all the stronger. The White colonists who he's meant to represent weren't just mindless beasts. They had passions and families and love for people in their lives and STILL chose to slaughter Indigenous people and steal their homeland. That type of villain is far more evil to me than the ones who are "purely" evil like demons or malignant spirits. If we got some more humanizing moments where Vald felt real and relatable, then the horror of his actions would have felt a lot less cartoonish and a lot more visceral.

I think the trilogy as a whole is quite good. The prose isn't really anything to write home about and a lot of the messaging is on the nose, but with a premise like this that's hard to avoid. There are some really solid characters, good action scenes, and a lot of subtle things at work showing us how Western versions of myths, legends, and fairy tales are often misunderstanding or willfully misrepresenting other peoples' traditions and beliefs.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continued to enjoy the fierceness of unusual fighters in this final volume: Quill, a Tetawa (basically halfling) dollmaker who can communicate with her dolls (who are embodiments of ancient spirits) to enlist them in the fight; Denarra the Strangling (half human/half kyn) wielder (can wield life forces around her); Tarsa, the kyn wielder/general badass; and Merriman, the human binder who was compelled to take on this art (trapping spirits within his wielder's book) by his parents long ago; and of course, Thobi the Tetawa leafspeaker who keeps stories and sees the future through his divining leaves, but is also a brave warrior.

I'm not a huge fan of any narratives that focus around battle; it's why I have never finished Lord of the Rings. I find it upsetting to read depictions of death and dismemberment, agony and hate, good vs. evil over and over. It's just not really enjoyable for me. That was true here too, but I was invested in the characters enough that I wanted to know how the story ended.

Although the ending was satisfying, the denoument was a bit confusing. I didn't really understand how Tarsa ends up becoming/embodying the Wyrwood, which is a central plot point around which the rest of the narrative of this final volume revolves. I also didn't really understand the big realization she has in the final battle, that the Reach was always Kyn land? Did this mean the melding didn't happen? Or the veil between the worlds was created by men only to be later torn down? I feel like some of these points got a little lost in the layers of poetry and symbolism, for me. But of course seeing Tobhi and Quill have a family of adopted orphans, and Tarsa, Daladir and Jitani having a daughter was satisfying (although why Daladir only comes around from time to time is a bit disappointing - there was a promising triad there, and nice to see a poly family represented).

So in sum, really enjoyable and original characters, and plot too, but ultimately it still followed that high fantasy blow-out final battle structure (tear it all down and leave with a hope of rebuilding) that I just find too sad/too real to really enjoy in what seems like it should be an escapist genre. Totally my preference and not the book's fault.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waouh. Quelle série époustouflante, et aucun des trois tomes ne m'a déçue à aucun moment (ce qui est le plus souvent le cas avec les séries). Je suis encore sous le charme et le choc de cette lecture...